A Lake Elsinore doctor was arrested this week on suspicion of defrauding government insurance programs of more than $300,000.

Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Badr, 56, is suspected of submitting fraudulent claims for health care benefits from Medicare, Medi-Cal and TRICARE, California Department of Justice Special Agent Salvador Rojas wrote in a declaration seeking an arrest warrant.

Badr was arrested Wednesday in Hemet and is being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside in lieu of $750,000 bail,jail records show.

On Monday, Badr was charged with three counts of insurance fraud and two counts of grand theft, Riverside Superior Court documents show. He could be arraigned on the charges Friday.

No one could be reached for comment at Badr's Lake Elsinore office on West Graham Avenue, as the line had been disconnected.

Rojas stated that Badr was first brought to his attention in 2009 by an attorney representing two convalescent hospitals, whose office was investigating Medicare claims submitted by the doctor on behalf of approximately 20 patients.

Medicare is a federally funded program that provides health care to qualifying elderly and disabled people.

Rojas stated in the declaration that after auditing Badr's Medicare claims from Jan. 1, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2009, it was determined that Badr was paid for treatments that were not documented in the medical files of the patients under whose names the claims were submitted.

"Badr was paid for over $155,000 in undocumented Medicare claims during that period," he wrote.

The investigator said that further investigation found that Badr had received an additional $69,000 from Medicare for services on dates on which cellphone and travel records show that he was outside Southern California.

Rojas found that Badr had also submitted claims for treatments on these dates to TRICARE, a federal program that insures military members and their dependents, and Medi-Cal, a California program for qualifying indigent and disabled people.

"This brings the sum of fraud against government programs by Badr to more than $309,000," Rojas stated.

An arrest warrant, issued Monday, set bail at $750,000. Although bail typically would have been a little more than $300,000, Rojas recommended the higher amount because he felt Badr was a flight risk.

According to the Medical Board of California, Badr graduated medical school in 1980 at the University of Cairo in Egypt. He also has an extensive record of international travel.

"He would be able to leave and practice medicine internationally, including in Egypt, where he would be able to live an upper class lifestyle in a new democracy," Rojas wrote.

If Badr were able to meet the bail amount, Rojas said, "he would likely flee the jurisdiction so that he would not face a possible prison sentence and loss of his medical license."

On the day of his arrest, search warrants were served at Badr's home in Escondido and his office in Lake Elsinore, said Deputy Attorney General Hardy Gold.

Badr's California medical license, which he received in 1996, is still active. There is no public record of any prior disciplinary action taken against him.

Gold said the alleged crimes are serious, since the country's increasing senior population depends on Medicare funds.

"More and more people are finding themselves in nursing home care, and they depend on the doctors who are treating them," he said. "We are trying to do what we can to make sure honest services are rendered."